Eps 1: Playing Videos in Emails Sent
— Playing Videos in Email Sent
| Host image: | StyleGAN neural net |
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| Content creation: | GPT-3.5, |
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Ronnie Shaw
Podcast Content
You can also embed the video by creating a thumbnail or GIF of the video within the email and adding a link to an external page such as your landing page, YouTube, or any other medium where you can view the video fully.
It's all about video in email, and the best way to send videos nowadays is to email a thumbnail or link to a video from your website. Another way to send videos by email is to embed a video message so that the recipient can play it. Instead of adding a video preview to the email or the video itself, you can send the video as an attached file to your email.
If a large number of your subscribers use one of the email clients listed above, you have no reason to embed a video with HTML5 in your emails. If you want to use email marketing best practices such as embedding GIFs, make sure the video you want is included as compelling and interesting content for your email subscribers. Before you start incorporating videos into your email campaigns, consider whether email client supports the ability to play video in the inbox.
Readers also get a useful way to play your video in the email. This gives the recipient a way to play the video without leaving the email itself. For example, it looks like the video is embedded in an email but it is actually an animated GIF image with a "Play" button next to it.
For example, if you send your email with GetResponse, you can add a link to your video as a thumbnail or GIF. Some email clients use the first frame of the video or GIF as a back-up image, so make sure it is a good image.
The thumbnail of your video acts as a playback button in the email so that the recipient can click to play the video. An easy way to replicate the experience of an actual video marketing email is to use an image with a graphic of a "play button" over it. In this way the image of the video is disguised as a video and thanks to the play button, when the recipient clicks on the image in your email the "play" button duo will take them to the site where the video is playing.
GIF thumbnails work better than images in emails because they give your subscribers a better feel for your video and increase the likelihood of clicking the video to watch it.
Some email providers do not support video playback in HTML5 and end up with a fallback image. Gmail, which has 40% of the Webmail market share, does not support this method of embedding videos in emails. If the recipient opens a video in an email of Gmail, Outlook or any other email client that does not yet support video, however, they will have a great viewing experience.
Video in Email Best Practices Playing videos in email sounds like a nice experience, but it's best to consider your goals before you go wild. No email client guarantees that videos will play in emails, and some major email providers such as Gmail and Outlook do not allow you to embed videos into emails. If large email clients, including Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook, do not support embedding videos, your subscribers will not be able to view your video emails or worse, they will not see them at all, and they will end up in their spam folder.
The closest approach to embedded video playback in an email is to play an animated GIF image that plays a short loop animation of the video, but lacks audio playback and controls components. It is possible to play video in line with any email client, but this is a bit tricky because not all email client devices treat video the same way and some do not support video . According to Email Acid's limited HTML5 video support, only Apple and Samsung clients can play embedded video and represent about half of the market share.
This method is not the best way to send large video files, because the typical limit for video files is 20-25MB in email clients. Sending videos as an attachment to Drive allows you to send larger videos in an email, but only works if the recipient uses a Drive service, and emails are limited to supported clients.
Packlane uses a bright and colorful play button to encourage subscribers to click in their email on the video. Our recommended method for making email videos work is to insert a thumbnail or animated GIF of your video into the email with a link to a landing page. The HTML code contains code to add a fallback image if the recipient's email client does not support the video embedding method for viewing the image.